Retreat Time on Cape Cod

A week ago at this time, I was attending a quilt retreat at the Bayside Resort in West Yarmouth on Cape Cod. I was with forty lovely ladies from the Crosstown Quilters Guild. Sewing machines were humming, but because of a shoulder issue, I only brought cross stitching. (I am happy to report that after a magic cortisone shot and a few PT sessions, my shoulder is fine, but I wasn’t taking any chances and left my machine at home.)

Usually, I take photos of many of the quilts in process, but I only took a few this time.

Here’s a colorful quilt created by Joyce. 

 Mary D. made this piece for her granddaughter who likes Highland Cattle. Isn’t he a cutie!

So what did I stitch? Rascals by designer Barbie Tingley at Petal Pushers. It was finished on this bunny shaped backing board that I picked up at the Target dollar spot a number of years ago. This five dollar piece has been sitting in my stash waiting for the right cross stitch piece.

Let me leave you with a smile. This sweet sheep planter came home with me from the grocery store yesterday simply because it did make me smile! We are living in frightening times, and I’m all in for anything that makes me smile. :-) 

Stay positive and have a good week. 

Something Fishy Going On . . .

 It has been awhile since my last post, but I have been busy stitching. I just haven’t had any fully finished pieces to show. An Irish Chain quilt is at the long armer, and early this morning (4:00 am) I finished adding the final borders to this fish panel quilt which will be donated to DCF (the Department of Children and Families.) Now, I don’t usually sew at 4:00 am, but there are some nights when things keep you awake. In my case, it’s a frozen shoulder that is the culprit. OUCH!!! PT starts on Thursday.

Here is the fishy panel that I am using. Isn’t it cool! All the borders have been added, so I’ll be able to start quilting it soon. 

I love this panel, and I only wish I could remember where I purchased it.

Yes, colorful panels are perfect to use in quilts for children. Interestingly, while scrolling through Youtube sites yesterday, I came across a tutorial for a log cabin panel quilt that I am definitely going to explore. Sew Charming Quilt Shop in Clanton, AL seems like a wonderful quilt shop. It has a presence on Youtube with many tutorials. Just go to Youtube, put in Sew Charming Quilt Shop,  and you will find much to enjoy. Look for the “Log Cabin Panel” demo video which was posted yesterday.

Now, please stop what you are doing or save this for later, but you absolutely must check this out. In Chamberlain, South Dakota, there is a fifty foot stainless steel sculpture by Dale Lamphere which depicts an Indigenous woman in plain style dress with a star quilt around her. It is truly stunning and something I one day hope to see in person. This statue is called ”Dignity of Earth and Sky.” Equally stunning is a quilt entitled “Dignity” by Veruschko Zarat which won  Best of Show at Quilt Con 2025. Again, you absolutely must see this. Go to Youtube and search for “Alex Anderson LIVE “ to see a short interview with an amazingly gifted quilter. The interview starts at about eight minutes into the program. Quilter or not, I know you will be stunned by the beauty of this double sided quilt. I have never seen a more impressive or more beautiful quilt.

Here are a couple of other recommendations. If you haven’t seen the six-part political/conspiracy thriller Zero Day starring Robert Di Nero on Netflix, it is definitely worth your time. Though, truth to say things are pretty scary enough in real life right now. 

Another Netflix movie, The Six Triple Eight, directed by Tyler Perry is also very well done. It tells the true story of a Black WAC unit stationed in France during WWII assigned the impossible task of sorting and sending out a two-year backlog of millions of pieces of mail. The focus for the prior two years had been the delivery of supplies and weapons with no attention paid to the letters. One account said that17 million pieces of mail sent by soldiers to their loved ones and vice versa had been bagged and stored in multiple warehouses. This movie, too, is well worth your time. 

Finally, last week one of the presenters on the Youtube podcast Occupy Democrats summed things up with this line. “It’s been six weeks and we are all on the highway to hell without any airbags.” Sad but true, but it brought a smile to my face. 

Find moments of peace and joy each day.

Books in Bloom 2025

This amaryllis which had taken so long to bloom is now in full bloom. It looks lovely against this quilt piece that I made way back in 2009. Three months after I retired, I flew to Italy for a workshop with Esterita Austin in Tuscany. It was a wonderful week. This wall hanging depicts the view from an upper window at the villa where the workshop took place. This piece was started at the workshop and completed when I returned home.

Speaking of flowers, after a fun lunch with friends yesterday, I visited the “Books in Bloom” exhibit by the Weymouth Garden Club at the Tufts Library in Weymouth. It will be up until tomorrow. In case you are not able to see it in person, let me show you a few of the displays.

Out of Africa

The Children’s Room also had some delightful displays.

It was a lovely break from the onslaught of horrible news coming from the Oval Office. I recently wrote that politics would not be a part of this blog, but this is not the time for any of us to keep silent. Today’s shameful, disgraceful treatment of President Volodymyr Zelensky was just the latest outrage in what has been a horrible few weeks. 

Slava Ukraini/ Glory to Ukraine!

A Strange Day on the Estate or the Joys of Home Ownership

 We have been having wet, snowy, freezing, windy weather. It seems as if we have had a storm every few days. That all played into today’s adventure on the estate.

Emma could work for the postal service as she is never deterred by the weather; it never stops her from completing her appointed rounds. Sunday’s sloppy mess froze solid overnight. 

This morning it was very cold but the sky was a lovely bright blue. Emma had just gone out when I spotted a large hawk circling over  the woods behind my house. How awesome I thought. That was this morning. After lunch when I let Emma out, she seemed inordinately interested in something behind one of my gardens and ignored my repeated calls for her to come in. It was far too cold for her to be out for a long time, so I grabbed my boots, my phone, and a snow shovel and headed out praying that I wouldn’t fall.  I used the snow shovel to help me navigate the frozen tundra digging it into the snow along the way to steady myself. (Yes, I know it was crazy, but I didn’t have any choice. I did wonder in passing how I would explain it to my orthopedist if I fell and broke a bone or two or three. ) I would soon need the snow shovel for another purpose. The object of Emma’s interest was a very large, eviscerated rabbit! Obviously, it had been too big for the hawk to have carried it off after his breakfast. Yuck! Make that double yuck! It was gross!!! Using the snow shovel, I managed to get it up and I launchd it over the fence into the woods.  It was not a proper woodland burial, but it was all that I could manage. The hawk was still in the area, and the rest of his meal would be easy for him to spot. Then I slowly, thankfully, made it safely back into the house.

On a happier note, let me show you my progress on “Un Jour a Paris en Hiver / A Day in Paris in Winter.” My plan is to stitch exclusively on this piece until it is done. This stylish lady is walking her little black dog which I am eager to begin stitching. Around the Q snap is a grime guard to keep the edges clean; I made two of these grime guards yesterday. 

Well, that’s it for today and don’t worry: nothing but nothing will prompt me to take chances on the ice again. Until it melts, Emma will be restricted on a short tie-out. I checked and Alexa just told me that spring arrives on March 30th. :-) We will all be happy on that day.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2025

 

I have said repeatedly that my goal this year is to stitch strictly from stash. Unfortunately, it is not working out according to plan. I have not purchased any yardage so far, but I’m weak and when I see cute wool applique pieces such as this, I’m sunk.  “Love Birds” was a pillow kit from My Red Door Designs. Honestly, how could I resist. . . wool applique, heart shaped doily, and pretty buttons??? I love how it turned out, and I finished it today on Valentine’s Day.

After Christmas, I usually purchase a few amaryllis bulbs on sale and plant up a bulb every couple of weeks. This one was very, very slow to start, but today on Valentine’s Day one bloom opened with more to come.

In my cellar, I have my Aunt Mildred’s music cabinet filled with vintage, and I do mean vintage, sheet music. Since this is a day for romance, I thought I would share one of my favorite pieces.

Gee, they just don’t write romantic ballads like this anymore. This catchy ditty was by composer Ray Henderson. Aren’t the graphics wonderful! I had plans at one point to feature some of these fun sheet music covers in a crazy quilt piece; for now that project is on the back burner. 

While I’m mentioning crazy quilting, I might as well confess that I also purchased a crazy hearts wall hanging kit. Shabby Fabrics will be my undoing as they always have wonderful quilting and wool projects. Since I have so little self control, I considered unsubscribing from their emails, but I didn’t. After all, it never hurts to look. :-)

329 Days Until Christmas

Here is my first finish of 2025. Yes, I finished this wool applique table topper for Christmas 2025!!! I enjoy making seasonal mats on which to display this lovely little tree made by the Simon Pearce glass factory in Vermont. It was a gift one year from my godchild’s family. The wool applique design was by Buttermilk Basin, and I purchased the kit from Shabby Fabrics. The name of the piece is “Christmas Treats Mat.”

I had started that piece in December, but things got too busy to finish it. It will be tucked away with my other Christmas things until next year, and my tree will be displayed on my wool, mittens topper. It, too, was a Buttermilk Basin design, and I also bought this kit from Shabby Fabrics a year or two ago. 

When I put my Valentine pieces out the other day, I wasn’t happy with how “Just My Type” had been finished a few years ago, so I took it apart. I purchased a 12” unfinished wood square piece at Hobby Lobby, and I discovered just the right shade of paint in my stash. “Just My Type” was a pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop.

Once again I plan to stitch one new Christmas ornament each month. That was also my plan last year. Please don’t ask how that turned out. :-)

I did, however, finish one for this month which I’ll show in an upcoming post. 

Stay calm and keep warm. 

Brrrrr . . . It’s Been Cold Outside

 After not having much snow this winter, this is what it looked like during the sweet light of early Monday morning. It was beautiful, and the very nicest kind of snow to shovel, light and fluffy. We only received about five inches which is little more than a nuisance for us. 

It has been a little over two weeks since my last post. Why so long? Well, I didn’t have any work to show. I’m in the middle of a couple of projects, but nothing is finished. I could write about Donald Trump having been sworn as our forty-seventh President, but I won’t. This blog is “A Positive Outlook,” and I don’t have one when I think about the next four years. So, no politics here. Wait . . I changed my mind. Just one thing . . I encourage you to read and follow Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson. Her posts each day offer clear, insightful analysis of what is happening in our government. Her post of January 22 is particularly worrisome, make that downright frightening! I have added a link to her site under “Blogs That I Follow” which can be found in the right hand column of my blog. If you follow my posts by email notice, simply click on the title in the email and it will bring you to my full page. Oh, and thanks for reading my posts.:-)

On a brighter note, after five and a half months, I have been out of my boot for a couple of weeks. Yeah!!!

Yesterday morning I headed to The Quilted Crow in Bolton with my friend Edith. My plan is to stitch strictly from stash this year, but I had two store credits that would have expired soon, so off I went. There I was able to pick up a few pieces of wool for an upcoming project. 

That’s it for now. Stay calm and have a good week.